Anonymous boy in He-Man outfit from Monster Donut blog....Henry Jenkins says characters like He-Man and their associated toys and costumes are "in effect an authoring system which encouraged young people to make up their own stories about these characters"
At Nieman Storyboard Andrea Pitzer talks with Henry Jenkins about his ideas on “Transmedia” and the future of journalism:
“In the case of entertainment, the question is how might gifted storytellers deepen our experiences by creating narratives that meaningfully extend across media platforms. In the case of journalism, the question may be, how might we cover news better if we can draw on the affordances of a range of different media in a more coordinated fashion—the immediacy of broadcasting, the reflectiveness of print, and the data base or interactive structures we associate with digital. The multimedia capacity of the IPad which allows for these different media forms to be brought together within a single app only makes the experimentation with transmedia news that much more urgent.”
Noting the digital experiments of the Annenberg School of Journalism site Neon Tommy, Jenkins also mentioned Nonny De La Pena’s work on immersive journalism, “journalism involving virtual worlds and simulations.” (See De La Pena’s MacArthur grant-funded project, “Gone Gitmo” on the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay.) I’d add Wired’s use of charticles and a game to explore the micro and macro issues of Somali piracy as another interesting effort. Let us know if you see other examples of using traditional media elements in conjunction with truly interactive efforts.
For more on the Gone Gitmo Project check out the project blog and this Vanity Fair article, Click Here for Torture:
De la Peña says the idea behind Gone Gitmo was to create a virtual but accessible version of a place that was real but inaccessible to all but detainees, military personnel, and dedicated lawyers. One such lawyer, Lieutenant Commander Charlie Swift, who visited the prison regularly for five years, says, “I applaud their efforts. It’s very hard to explain to people what Guantánamo is like.” But, while the model gives a fairly accurate idea of what the prison looks like, a larger truth is lost. “The irony is it’s the lack of senses that is the real hell, not any particular thing that happens. That is the uniqueness of Guantánamo,” says Swift, who sued George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld over the camp’s military-tribunal system, which deprives detainees of many rights afforded prisoners in the U.S. (See “Taking on Guantánamo,” by Marie Brenner.) “You’re strapped down, can’t see or hear, can’t move, your muscles are cramping, and that’s it.”
If the people behind Gone Gitmo want a truly accurate model, Swift adds, “the rules should change every time.… Psychiatrists will tell you that if the game works perfectly, it’s dangerous for people to play.”
